R.H. Macy had a series of failed retail ventures throughout his early career.

Soichiro Honda's unique vision got him ostracized by the Japanese business community.

Getty Images/ The Asahi Shimbun

Honda was a mechanical genius who idolized Edison and rebelled against the norm. His passion for aggressive individualism was more fit for the United States, and thus alienated him from Japanese businessmen, who valued teamwork above all else. Honda then boldly challenged the American automotive industry in the 1970s and led a Japanese automotive revolution.

Colonel Harland David Sanders was fired from dozens of jobs before founding a successful restaurant.

After having trouble adjusting to the culture and his classes, Dick Cheney dropped out of Yale — and then returned, only to drop out for good.

AP Photo/Richard Drew

George W. Bush once joked: "So now we know if you graduate from Yale, you become president. If you drop out, you get to be vice president."

Sir Isaac Newton's mother pulled him out of school as a boy so that he could run the family farm. He failed miserably.

Getty Images/Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller

Realizing her son was not meant to till the land, she let Newton finish his basic education and was eventually persuaded to allow him to enroll in Cambridge University. Newton went on to become one of the greatest scientists of all time, revolutionizing physics and mathematics.

Vera Wang failed to make the U.S. Olympic figure-skating team. Then she became an editor at Vogue and was passed over for the editor-in-chief position.

As a child, Albert Einstein had some difficulty communicating and learning in a traditional manner.

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Of course, Einstein's communication and behavioral problems were not indicative of a lack of intelligence. He won the Nobel prize in physics for the discovery of the photoelectric effect, and his special theory of relativity theory corrected the deficiencies of Newtonian physics.

Note: A previous version of this slide incorrectly stated that the Nobel prize was for his theory of relativity.

In one of Fred Astaire's first screen tests, an executive wrote: "Can't sing. Can't act. Slightly balding. Can dance a little."

J.K. Rowling was a single mom living off welfare when she began writing the first "Harry Potter" novel.

Charles Darwin was considered an average student. He gave up on a career in medicine and was going to school to become a parson.

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But as Darwin studied nature, he found his true calling and traveled the world to uncover nature's mysteries. His writings, especially "On the Origin of the Species," fundamentally changed the world of science by spreading the discovery of evolution.

Vincent Van Gogh sold only one painting, "The Red Vineyard," in his life, and the sale was just months before his death.

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, had his first book rejected by 27 different publishers.

Lucille Ball appeared in so many second-tier films at the start of her career that she became known as "The Queen of B Movies."

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Then she got her big break when CBS picked up her and her husband Desi Arnaz's vaudeville act and turned it into the highly influential sitcom "I Love Lucy."

A young Henry Ford ruined his reputation with a couple of failed automobile businesses.

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However, after conducting a search, he was finally able to find a partner who had faith in him. Ford proved he had learned from his mistakes when Ford Motor Company forever changed the automotive industry and culture with his assembly line mode of production.

While developing his vacuum, Sir James Dyson went through 5,126 failed prototypes and his savings over 15 years.